New Medication

[chipster55]

Has anyone heard or tried a medication called LIFEGUARD. It was recommended to me by an experienced LFS employee. It comes in tablets and supposedly treats many diseases. Thanks

 

[Bignose]

... and supposedly treats many diseases.

This throws up a pretty huge red flag for me, since there really doesn't exist a magic bullet that cures all sorts of diseases. Specifically, there are antibacterial for bacterial diseases, anti-fungals, antiwormers, etc. etc.
And you should only treat your tank with a medication when you have correctly identified the disease and have obtained the correct medicine for that problem. Medication as a shot-in-the dark is pretty dangerous, not only for the fish, but possibly for you since some of the medications are pretty dangerous to handle unnecessarily.

Could you post the ingredients list, then we would have a much better idea of what the proposed medication is supposed to do?

p.s. it is kind of bad form to post the same question in two places, just easier to answer questions in one and only one thread.

 

[chipster55]

... and supposedly treats many diseases.

This throws up a pretty huge red flag for me, since there really doesn't exist a magic bullet that cures all sorts of diseases. Specifically, there are antibacterial for bacterial diseases, anti-fungals, antiwormers, etc. etc.
And you should only treat your tank with a medication when you have correctly identified the disease and have obtained the correct medicine for that problem. Medication as a shot-in-the dark is pretty dangerous, not only for the fish, but possibly for you since some of the medications are pretty dangerous to handle unnecessarily.

Could you post the ingredients list, then we would have a much better idea of what the proposed medication is supposed to do?

p.s. it is kind of bad form to post the same question in two places, just easier to answer questions in one and only one thread.

Sorry about double post...I tried to delete the other but couldn't find how to do it...Ok here are indredients

1-chloro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-imidazolidinone

Any info you could give on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[moeldner]

here's the website - looks more like a tonic to my inexperienced eye

http/www.junglelabs.com/pages/details.asp?item=TT101

 

[Tolak]

http/www.ars.usda.gov/research/publicati...q_no_115=137543

I'm no chemist, but it sounds like some sort of chlorine compound. This makes me wonder if dechlorinator would have any effect on it, or if it would have any effect on the ability of dechlorinator to do what it's supposed to. Need a chemist to look into this.

 

[Bignose]

I could find nothing about that chemical and fish in the database of scientific papers I use. That doesn't mean it is bad, it is just a little suspicious that no researcher has ever published a paper in it before.

Google comes up with this: http/www.ars.usda.gov/research/publicati...q_no_115=137543 from 2003. The author here says "shows promise" which certainly does not mean proves. Maybe she will publish her findings in the near future. Tolak beat me to this and posted while I was.

I know why this chemical is claimed to be able to kill everything. It is a stabilized chlorine compound (the chlorine is attached to a very stable ring structure). The problem is that chlorine is pretty indiscriminate about what it kills, which is why we sterilize our water with it. It is so indiscriminate, that it will also kill fish, which is obviously why we use dechlorinating compounds before a water change.

What I should have said in my first post in this thread is: ...there really doesn't exist a magic bullet that cures all sorts of diseases without also killing everything else, including fish. Which is really what chlorine does.

I would hazard a guess in that the doses are small enough that it probably kills a percentage of whatever nasties are in your tank, but probably not all of them. Now, this may be good enough to give your fish's immune system a chance to catch up, but maybe not since the fish will also be irritated by the chlorine in there. And overdosing will be a very significant concern since more chlorine = more fish deaths. Note also, that since the chlorine is so indiscriminate, say goodbye to your filter bacteria as well, and a a lack of filtering cannot do your fish any help, either.

Because of all this, I would really treat this chemical as absolutely last resort since it attacks everything indiscriminately. I think that there are better alternatives out there, especially when you match the proper treatment with a proper diagnosis.

Finally, I really hate that Jungle does not put a direct link to this product's MSDS (material safety data sheet) document on that webpage. MSDS's tell you just how dangerous a chemical it can be, take a look at http/www.clubjungle.com/uploads/msds/Lif...d%20Tablets.pdf (which I only found through Google). I want to know exactly what the hazards are when I handle a chemical, and Jungle shouldn't have to hide this in anyway whatsoever. This is strictly a personal choice, but I would not buy from a company that hides this information.

 

[Tolak]

Thank you Bignose! It sounded chlorine based to my chemistry deficient brain. By looking over the MSDS, it says noxious chlorine gas is released upon ignition. Sounds to me like you are rechlorinating your recently dechlorinated water.

Being a very stable ring structure, I wonder about the ability of dechlorinator to neutrilize it, and if any other compound would remain, much like the effect sodium thiosulfate has on chloramine.

 

[chipster55]

Thank you Bignose! It sounded chlorine based to my chemistry deficient brain. By looking over the MSDS, it says noxious chlorine gas is released upon ignition. Sounds to me like you are rechlorinating your recently dechlorinated water.

Being a very stable ring structure, I wonder about the ability of dechlorinator to neutrilize it, and if any other compound would remain, much like the effect sodium thiosulfate has on chloramine.

Thank-you very much for your info and your time. I guess I will discontinue use and put charcoal back in. The white spots or almost gone from my Silver Dollars. Again Thanks alot.